In certain areas of chemistry and biology the determination of binding interactions between molecules is of utmost importance. This is especially true in connection with studies involving physiology. A myriad of chemical and biochemical interactions associated with physiological processes, or with the interaction of chemicals with physiological processes, involve recognition of one molecular entity by another. One class of such interactions involves the physiological activity of pharmaceuticals (drugs). Precise understanding of the interaction of drugs with physiological entities, and the design of and/or discovery of drugs that can interact physiologically is, of course, of huge interest to society.
Drug discovery typically is facilitated by screening large numbers of candidate drugs for interaction with physiological targets such as target receptors or proteins. Known techniques for drug screening include studying candidate drugs individually for their pharmaceutical potential, often in parallel with tens, hundreds, or thousands of other drug candidates. In a typical process thousands of drug candidates (a library), each known to have at least some potential for some type of pharmaceutical use, are studied, in parallel, for their activity in connection with a specific physiological target. While this and other techniques for screening drugs, and studying other chemical or biological binding interactions are known, some are time-consuming and laborious. A need exists for improved, varied, and in some cases more rapid techniques for studying such interactions.